Saturday, February 07, 2015

Uraling with Scott M.

Beautiful day here in the great state of Colorado. Scott M, a fellow Uralista with a 2010 GearUP and I arranged to meet at 10:30 AM at the gas station outside of Morrison to do some riding together.

We headed out shortly after 10:30, heading north on CO 93 towards Golden. At Golden we headed west on US6, enjoying the twists and turns of this canyon road as it takes one up into the foothills. Scott was really enjoying himself, electing to fly the chair on the curves whenever he could, I imagined a big grin on his face as I was entertained each time I glanced at him in the rear view mirrors.

We went through the casino town of Blackhawk soon enough and then it was time to stop the rigs for a picture along the Peak to Peak Highway, aka CO119.

Along the Peak to Peak Highway

Near junction of Golden Gate Canyon Rd and CO119

Scott then suggested we double back a bit and take what turned out to be County Rd 4S to get some off-road riding in, I quickly agreed.

We got onto this dirt road but didn't get very far past the junction with County Rd 4N due to steep snow-covered trails but it was fun exploring. Heading in a southerly direction along whatever trails came along, we ended up coming across a small dam/reservoir called Gold Metal Water.

Scott fooling around....

Gold Metal Water Reservoir

Continuing along the dirt roads, we eventually surfaced near Central City's cemetery. Scott spied an FJ Cruiser parked nearby with other 4x4 vehicles and immediately headed in their direction to chat up the FJ's owner.

Scott drives a pretty beefed up FJ Cruiser you see, and apparently its quite the friendly community. We spent a few minutes in their company while Scott chatted with the driver of the FJ and compared notes and such.

After leaving the 4x4 group, we encountered yet another small and old cemetery, this one with the sign: Rocky Mountain 2, IOOF Cemetery 1865. Cool. More info here on the IOOF.

I was trying to find the trail to the "Oh My God" road to lead us back towards I-70 but missed the sign, instead we surfaced near the ghost town of Nevadaville:

Nevadaville's City Hall and Fire Department

Trading Post

Failing to find the "Oh My God" road, we ended up on the Central City Parkway. I then spied a sign for the "Hidee Gold Mine" and we turned off to explore some more.

Scott rode down this small trail and we ended up near a spot with a nice view of distant mountain peaks.

photo courtesy Scott M.

After some discussion, we decided to pose our rigs on the small mound perhaps 30 ft from the dirt trail. This would involve a bit of off-road riding in rocky/lumpy grassland, but no big problems.

Video snippet showing the terrain we were riding on to pose the

rigs with the mountains in the background.

It was very windy at this spot, gusts of wind would blow us around sometimes!

Pictures done, I mounted Scarlett to get her back onto the trail. The starter would crank the engine but it wouldn't start! Did this several times, checked for fuel in the tank and there was plenty, weird. I then look down towards my right foot and saw a small stream of gas dripping off the EFI throttle body! Oh Oh.

Turns out, the plastic coupler which mates the right side fuel line to the right side fuel injector had broken off at the base! Dammit.

photo courtesy Scott M.

I used a vise grip plier to cut off the fuel flow and assessed the situation. Initially, it looked pretty grim since the plastic part that had broken, I didn't have a spare of. I did have a spare of the left side plastic coupler though and after a brief examination; Scott and I determined it should work even though it wouldn't be fully secure via the mounting screw going into the throttle body.

This is the left side coupler, on the right throttle body....note the

tab with the screw hole can't be used in this position.

photo courtesy Scott M.

I managed to remove the broken plastic piece from within the fuel hose, mounted the plastic coupling (you just snap it off and on, rubber gaskets hold it in place, along with the mounting screw.

Fingers crossed, I thumbed the ignition button and Scarlett sprang to life like nothing had happened.

I put my tools away, secured the plastic coupler with a zip tie and rode Scarlett back onto the dirt road and back onto the Central City Parkway.

photo courtesy Scott M.

Scott and I rode down to I-70 and we sprinted along the slab to the Bergen Park exit where we went to get gas. After tanking up, Scott and I split up as it seemed the repairs were holding and Scarlett was running fine.

I would stop less than a minute later as I remembered I had not re-tightened the hose clamps holding the right side air tube to the airbox and throttle body!

I made my way back to the metro area via the I-70 Super Slab and elected to take the C-470 Slab back towards home. As I neared the Yosemite Street exit, Scarlett suddenly lost power! Looking down, I saw the fuel was actively spraying my right boot with gasoline. Doh!

I swiftly drifted my way onto the side of the highway and shut off her engine. A quick look and I was relieved to see the fitting was fine, the hose had just come loose! You see, I'd failed to install a small hose clamp to hold it in place. My fault, now I had a gasoline soaked right foot but the rig was once again running.

I dug out the appropriate hose clamp from my spares box and installed it. I motored on home, feeling a burning sensation beginning to build on the top of my right foot within the fuel-soaked boot. It got pretty bad, had to stop to spray down my boot with all my water bottles. This helped a tiny bit but I still felt quite the burning sensation as I neared home.

I parked Scarlett and hurriedly doffed my riding gear and ran cool water on my right foot once I'd removed the boot and gas-soaked sock. Arrrgh. It felt like a bad sunburn and looked quite red for a bit.

Martha, my loving wife, got me some Aloe Vera lotion and it helped soothe the pain away eventually; along with the ingestion of some ibuprofen for the inflammation. She said I had a first degree burn irritation due to the 30 minute + soaking in gasoline.

So, quite the adventure today. Had a great outing, riding with Scott, playing on the dirt roads and fields.

VStar Lady, am already healed re the burn which turned out to be more irritation than burn I think.

Trobairitz, anything for my readers....well, almost.

RichardM....truly lucky isn't it? I had carried the left because I'd heard from Mr COB saying he'd broken the left one when doing the EPA testing for the 2014 rigs. Or was it the right? I don't recall now, I do know both sides' fuel rails were broken during that testing.

Thanks CCJon, so far so good re the camera, still exploring it's potential. For instance, it's video quality is very promising. You already have seen what it does with sunrises and sunsets. I like it a lot, still working on its bulkiness and having to swap lenses but it is what it is.